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    The Boy Patriot
    The Boy Patriot
    The Boy Patriot
    Ebook169 pages1 hour

    The Boy Patriot

    By Edward Sylvester Ellis

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    The Boy Patriot
    Author

    Edward Sylvester Ellis

    Edward Sylvester Ellis (1840–1916) was the author of hundreds of books and articles under numerous pen names. Born in Ohio, Ellis first gained acclaim as an author with Seth Jones while he was working as a teacher in New Jersey. After this success, he wrote all manner of books and articles, including mysteries, adventures, and history. 

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      Book preview

      The Boy Patriot - Edward Sylvester Ellis

      The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Boy Patriot, by Edward Sylvester Ellis

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Boy Patriot

      Author: Edward Sylvester Ellis

      Release Date: April 17, 2007 [eBook #21125]

      Language: English

      Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

      ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY PATRIOT***

      E-text prepared by Taavi Kalju, Janet Blenkinship,

      and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

      (http://www.pgdp.net)

      from digital material generously made available by

      Internet Archive/American Libraries

      (http://www.archive.org/details/americana)

      THE BOY PATRIOT.

      By

      EDWARD SYLVESTER ELLIS

      THE AUTHOR OF THE BLUE FLAG, CHEERILY, CHEERILY, ETC.

      HE WILL BLESS THEM THAT FEAR THE LORD, BOTH SMALL AND GREAT.

      PUBLISHED BY THE

      AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,

      150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK.

      The character of Blair Robertson, the Fairport boy, will not have been sketched in vain, if it prompt one young American to such a hearty serving of God as will make him a blessing to our dear native land. We have laid the scene of our story fifty years ago, but we trust that its lessons will be none the less appropriate to the present day.

      Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by the American Tract Society, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of the State of New York.

      Contents

      CHAPTER I.

      FAIRPORT.

      Were you ever on the coast of Maine? If so, you know how the rocky shores stretch out now and then clear into the ocean, and fret the salt waves till they are all in a foam. Old Ocean is not to be so set at defiance and have his rightful territory wrung from him, without taking his revenge after his own fashion. Far up into the land he sends his arms, and crooks and bends and makes his way amid the rocks, and finally falls asleep in some quiet harbor, where the tall pines stand by the shore to sing him a lullaby.

      In just such a spot as this the town we shall call Fairport was built. Axe in one hand and Bible in the other, stern settlers here found a home. Strong hard-featured sons, and fair rosy-cheeked daughters made glad the rude cabins that were soon scattered along the shore. The axe was plied in the woods, and the needle by the fireside, and yet grim Poverty was ever shaking her fist in the very faces of the settlers, and whispering sad things of what the uncertain future might have in store for them.

      Cheerily they bore the hardships of the present hour, and a deaf ear they turned to all such whispers. Yet those settlers were sensible, matter-of-fact men; and it was soon plain to them, that healthful as were the breezes that made so rosy the cheeks of their daughters, Fairport was not the very best site in the world for a settlement, at least if its people were to depend on the thin and rocky soil won from the forest, which scarcely produced the bare necessaries of life.

      Was Fairport given up in despair? No, no. Her settlers were not the men to be so daunted and foiled. If the land was unkindly, they could take to the water; and so they did, to a man. Some were off to the Newfoundland Banks, tossing about the codfish, and piling them up into stacks that were more profitable than any hay of their own raising. Some were on board swift vessels, doing a good share of the carrying trade between the West Indies and the New England cities. Some were seeking the whale far in the northern seas; while others, less enterprising, were content to fish nearer home for all sorts of eatable dwellers in the sea, from halibut to herring.

      Now a new day had begun for Fairport. The original cabins began to tower in the air or encroach on the submissive gardens, as building after building was added by the prosperous owners. Miniature villas, with a wealth of useless piazzas, appeared in the neighborhood of the town, and substantial wharves bordered one side of the quiet harbor, and gave a welcome to the shipping that seemed to grow and cluster there like the trees of a forest.

      Fairport had passed the struggles of its early youth when our story begins, though there were gray-haired citizens yet within its borders who could tell how the bears had once looked in at their cabin windows, and the pine-trees had stood thick in what was now the main street of the rising town.

      CHAPTER II.

      THE YOUNG ORATOR.

      The boys of Fairport were an amphibious set, who could live on land truly, but were happiest when in or near the water. To fish and swim, row, trim the sail, and guide the rudder, were accomplishments they all could boast. A bold, hardy, merry set they were; and but for the schoolmaster's rod and the teaching of their pious mothers, might have been as ignorant as oysters and merciless as the sharks. Master Penrose had whipped into most of them the elements of a plain English education, and gentle mothers had power to soften and rule these rough boys, when perhaps a stronger hand would have failed.

      Master Penrose always gave a full holiday on Saturday. Then the wharves were sure to swarm with the mischievous little chaps, all eager to carry out some favorite plan for amusement, in which old Ocean was sure to be engaged as a play-fellow. Poor indeed was the lad who had not a fish-hook and line with which to try his skill. The very youngest had his tiny boat to be launched, while his elders were planning sailing-parties, or jumping and leaping in the water like so many dolphins.

      Boys like to have a leader, some one they look up to as superior to the rest, and capable of deciding knotty questions, and going ahead in all times of doubt and difficulty. Blair Robertson occupied this position among the youngsters of Fairport. He had lawfully won this place among his fellows and achieved greatness, by being the best scholar at the academy, as well as the boldest swimmer, most skilful fisherman, and most experienced sailor among all the boys for miles along the coast. It was Blair Robertson's boast that he belonged to the nineteenth century, and grew old with it. It was doubtful whether the bold lad considered this age of progress as honored by his playing his part in its drama, or whether he claimed a reflected glory, as having been born at the very dawn of that century which promised so much for the thronging millions of our world.

      Be that as it may, Joe Robertson the pilot and Margaret his wife rejoiced, in the year 1800, over their first and only child. Thirteen years had swept by, and the honest couple were now as proud of that brave, strong boy as they had been of their baby, and with better reason.

      Troublous times had come upon their native land. War had been declared with England. All Fairport was ablaze at the idea of American seamen being forced to serve on English ships, and of decks whose timber grew in the free forests of Maine or North Carolina, being trodden by the unscrupulous feet of British officers with insolent search-warrants in their hands.

      Blair Robertson had his own views on these subjects—views which we find him giving forth to his devoted followers one sunny Saturday afternoon.

      Blair was mounted on a sugar hogshead which stood in front of one of the warehouses on the wharf. From this place of eminence he looked down on

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